Remember that Clear Spot 4G that was unveiled a fortnight or so ago? Hello, again! The so-called WIXFMM-122 has just made its way into the FCC's blossoming database, boasting 4G-only hotspot functionality (here we're talking WiMAX, not LTE), a minuscule display for showcasing signal strength and battery life, and support for up to eight simultaneous connections. Per usual, there's no information regarding a solid price or release, but given the inability to switch over to a 3G network if necessary, we're guessing it'll go for a song.Clear Spot 4G sails through the FCC, heading to WiMAX territories soon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 06:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Wireless Goodness | FCC | Email this | Comments

Sales of 3G cellular-equipped tablets have largely been a bust because consumers dont want to pay wireless carriers for another data plan on top of their data plans for smartphones, an IDG analyst said on Friday.

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:Apple to reportedly add second iPad manufacturer to meet ‘iPad HD’ demand this fall — Hot on the heels of reports that claim Apple is gearing up to launch a new iPad model this fall, Digitimes reports that Apple will be adding a second manufacture to augment the tablet's current manufacturing from Foxconn.

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:ISP flip-flops: why do they now support “six strikes” plan? — Why did three of the nation's largest network providers—Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon—sign on to the music and movie industry's “copyright alert” system? When we posed that question to Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden, he insisted that Verizon was just being a good citizen.

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - New Zealand customers at an online shopping site were happily shocked when they got expensive televisions and iPods for free Monday after a computer glitch charged them only postage and handling.

ClimateHacker writes "The struggle for freedom is still ongoing in Egypt and one of the many challenges that face the demonstrators in Tahrir Square is the sweltering heat. Skies are mostly clear and temperatures can reach up to 44 degrees Celsius (111 F) with hardly any shade. The risk of life-threatening heat stroke is quite real. I ask clever Slashdotters out there for novel DIY passive and active ambient cooling techniques. Perhaps some ideas could be a model for saving energy on cooling elsewhere." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:Why I'm Doubling Down on the Twitter Ecosystem — Today I'm announcing that GRP Partners is doubling down on the Twitter ecosystem by investing in DataSift, a company who provides a real-time data platform and tools to third-party developers and corporations.

Dhanji R. Prasanna / Rethrick Construction:Like it or Not — There's no shortage of punditry around the future and fate of Google+, a massive social networking effort from Google. Much of it centers around competition with facebook and whether or not it will succeed in unseating the latter as the dominant social networking site.

Well, there's clearly no better way to legitimize any new product than to have a faux Steve Jobs hawking it on-stage, in front of dozens of applauding mock journalists, with a 20-foot iPad 2 projected behind. The Jobs / John Stamos hybrid dropped by to pitch a Taiwanese company's vast selection of tea, of all things, for a TV advertisement that's apparently currently airing in Taiwan. Decked out in light jeans, a black mock turtleneck and sneakers, the impersonator even matched Steve's hair color, rimless glasses, and current weight. The only thing missing was an actual Apple product -- and months of media speculation. The "keynote" even ended with "one more thing," as they often do: Tea drinkers will have a shot at winning a bonafide iPad 2 with each purchase of oolong, milk, or Apple-infused Tong Yi Cha.Continue reading Steve Jobs impersonator officiates mock keynote, hawks Taiwanese tea (video)Steve Jobs impersonator officiates mock keynote, hawks Taiwanese tea (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink DVICE | YouTube | Email this | Comments

Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:Foxconn to spend $1.6B on stores in China to sell Apple products — The Chinese Economic Daily News via Bloomberg reports that Foxconn plans on spending NT$47B to build stores in China which will sell Apple products, which of course it also produces. The information was relayed by the unit's Chairman Steve Chang.

Paul Boutin / Technology Review:How Google+ Will Balkanize Your Social Life — For many, the new service offers the chance to press “reset on Facebook.” — Google launched its Facebook competitor, Google+, just over a week ago now. Even though sign-ups have so far been limited to a fraction of Facebook's 750 million users …

NTT DoCoMo's never been one to back down from the future, and some might say this carrier is actually already living in 2012. You know -- Land of the Rising Sun and all. At any rate, its latest foray into what's next came at the Wireless Technology Park in Yokohama, where it demonstrated a fully-functional 802.11ac prototype wireless system. For those unaware, that's what is scheduled to make 802.11n look like the 101 at lunchtime, with an effective throughput of 1Gbps per system. If all goes well, NTT will be commercializing the system "within a few years," and based on a demonstrated throughout of 120Mbps (as in, real-world results), we're hoping "few" becomes "one."NTT showcases next-gen 802.11ac wireless LAN solution, hopes for near-term commercialization originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Tech-On! | Email this | Comments

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday to deliver a last batch of supplies to the orbiting outpost on the final flight of the U.S. shuttle program.

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:The road ahead in mobile games — Mobile gaming is the wide-open battleground of the entertainment industry. While Zynga dominates social games and big publishers rule console games, the global smartphone game market is still up for grabs. Since there are potentially billions of users in this market …

According to an Associated Press story as run by the Connecticut Post, a "strip of fabric shorn from the flag planted on the moon by the Apollo 11 astronauts pulled in a top bid of $60000 at a Los Angeles auction, but didn't meet a minimum price so it won't be sold." Another $35,000 would have nabbed it, but — caveat emptor — the strip of fabric under discussion is one that never went to the moon itself, but rather was snipped off before the rest of the flag was stuffed into a tube for the mission. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Genpact, a large Indian outsourcer, has acquired the human resources services subsidiary of Nissan Motor for an undisclosed amount, and has bagged a seven-year contract to offer HR services to employees of the Japanese automotive company.

Ah, the pico projector. An idea that flourished if but for a moment, but never really hit that critical mass that CE companies yearn for. Evidently that matters not to Acer, who has decided to kick out two more for good measure. The downright diminutive C110 (seen above) is a DLP-powered beamer that gets all the juice it needs via USB, measures just 110- x 85- 25mm and offers up a WVGA (854 x 480) native resolution. The LED bulb is said to last up to 20,000 hours, and it'll go from dead to dazzling in five seconds flat. Moving up a couple notches, there's the C112 (pictured after the break), complete with an optional external battery (good for two hours, we're told), a 1,000:1 contrast ratio and an identical WVGA resolution. Both of these guys are slated to hit UK shops at the end of the month, with prices set at £199 and £22, respectively.Continue reading Acer's C110 and C112 pico projectors aim to please, travel wellAcer's C110 and C112 pico projectors aim to please, travel well originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 01:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Hiroko Tabuchi / New York Times:Quick Action Helps Google Win Friends in Japan — KESENNUMA, Japan — An oddly equipped car made its way last week through the rubble in this tsunami-stricken port city. On the roof: an assembly of nine cameras creating 360-degree panoramic digital images of the disaster zone to archive damage.

Guess what, emulation junkies? iMAME4All, a staple amongst retro iOS gamers, can now support iCade. Thanks to one Todd Laney, there's now a 3.5MB download that'll bring the joys of iCade to a relatively commonplace MAME application (and vice-versa). We're told that the best way to use these two is in fullscreen portrait mode, and after tapping the option button (and selecting "Options), the onscreen controls will fade out and the iCade buttons will appear. Looks like that Benjamin you just saved up now has yet another reason to be spent.[Thanks, Jim]iMAME4All gains experimental support for iCade, iOS gamers gain infinite happiness originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 23:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Google | Email this | Comments

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:How Apple Led The High-Stakes Patent Poker Win Against Google, Sealing Ballmer's Promise — “It's not like Android's free. Android has a patent fee. You do have to license patents.” — That was Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in an interview last year with The Wall Street Journal.

An anonymous reader writes "A team of Harvard researchers has been accused of breaching students' privacy in a project that involved downloading information from some 1,700 Facebook profiles. The case shines a light on emerging ethical challenges faced by academics researching social networks and other online environments." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We know, we know: Mango. But outside of wishing for Microsoft's most significant update yet to Windows Phone 7, we're curious to know how else you'd change the HTC Arrive. Your pickings are slim for WP7 on The Now Network, and while the Arrive has an absolutely rock-solid design, we're sure you've picked up on a few quibbles over the past few months. Would you have tweaked the keyboard in any way? Boosted the resolution? Thrown in a WiMAX radio? Improved the camera? Softened the edges somewhat? Go on and get vocal down in comments below!How would you change HTC's Arrive? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Maybe you're one of the lucky few who have plenty of space where 65-inch televisions are barely big enough to outfit your palatial estate. If so, we hate you (not really). Or perhaps you're like us at Engadget HQ where our city apartments are barely big enough for our Nabaztags. If so, Nyko has a $29 device coming August 23 called the Zoom that'll attach to your Kinect sensor to reduce the amount of flail-space required by about 40 percent. That translates to just four feet of distance from your Kinect. How does it do it? With lenses that refocus the sensors, so it has no power requirements. Call them glasses for your Kinect without the jabs from your classmates because they can't see you playing Kinect Adventures anyway, trooper.Nyko Zoom gives space-limited Kinect users more room on August 23 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Yahoo News | Email this | Comments

HTC is rocking the world this Sunday evening with an announcement on its Facebook page, stating that, as promised, it's ready to begin rolling out unlocked bootloaders to the global HTC Sensation in August, followed by the Sensation 4G on T-Mobile and the EVO 3D on Sprint. Developing...HTC rolling out unlocked bootloaders to select phones in August originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Facebook | Email this | Comments

Matt Brian / The Next Web:WordPress: Now Powering 50 Million Blogs — Matt Mullenweg, creator of the WordPress blogging platform and founder of Automattic, will have big reason to celebrate this Sunday after the number of self-hosted and WordPress.com blogs passed the 50 million mark.

Well, hello there little guy. Did you get lost on your way to production? Many, many moons since we got our first hands-on with the thing it looks like the Lenovo U1 has found the way to retail reality, making a stop by at the FCC to ensure that it can, some day, be released -- somewhere. When will that magical day come? We still don't know, but if you've forgotten just what this little guy is all about, take a trip down memory lane in the video after the break.Continue reading Lenovo U1 tablet arrives at FCC, finallyLenovo U1 tablet arrives at FCC, finally originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | FCC | Email this | Comments

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:Justin.TV: The Movie — While the historical accuracy of Facebook tell-all The Social Network was questionable, the movie did tremendously well at the box office. And at the Golden Globe Awards and the Oscars. Now Hollywood producers are looking for the next big story around a tech company.

Hugh Pickens writes writes "PC Magazine reports that the licensing company overseeing the HDMI specification has confirmed that existing Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapters which are designed by several cable makers and sold by several PC OEMs, are apparently illegal and could be recalled. According to Charlene Wan, director of marketing for HDMI LLC, any cable that does not include HDMI connectors on both ends violates the specification. "The HDMI specification defines an HDMI cable as having ONLY HDMI connectors on the ends," says Wan. "Anything else is not a licensed use of the specification and therefore, not allowed." That apparently includes Apple's mini-DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapters, which are sold by Belkin on Apple's Web site. However a representative for Belkin denies that the cable it sells on Apple's Web site is illegal. "Essentially, the product you mention in your post is not out of compliance because it is just an adaptor and not a cable," the representative wrote in an email. "We do not sell a cable with a male Mini-DP and male HDMI port, which is what falls out of compliance with the spec. HDMI does recognize a product that has a Mini-DP connector and HDMI receptacle with an internal active circuitry as it falls into the definition of a source device." There may also be a glimmer of hope, in that HDMI Org understands that there is a need for this type of cable: "We do recognise that there may be a market need for a cable solution rather than a dongle solution.[..]

Microsoft's Touch Mouse? Yeah, you've heard of that. But have you caught wind of its Explorer Touch Mouse? Nah, we didn't think so. In fact, neither had Pocket-lint, but they stumbled across this critter at the outfit's London Christmas in July event. It's positioned between the Touch Mouse and the Arc Mouse, boasting a blue hue, BlueTrack technology (for mousing on a pant leg) and the same kind of haptic scrollpad that's used on the aforesaid Arc. There's a grand total of five customizable buttons, which can be configured for left or right-hand use, and naturally, those good vibrations can be disabled if you simply aren't kosher with 'em. Microsoft didn't spill too many other details, but it's slated to land later this month (at least in the UK) for £69.99.Microsoft Explorer Touch Mouse quietly revealed, touts BlueTrack and haptic feedback originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Pocket-lint | Email this | Comments

Denise Howell / Bag and Baggage:Google user licenses: clarification would be nice, but they're not panic-worthy — During its brief 11 days of public-albeit-limited existence, Google+ has breathed new life into online discourse. It also has brought new interest and attention to Google's Picasa service, which allows users to share photos to Google+.

We've sometimes seen malware sources broken down by country; now a Dutch study attempts to increase the resolution of that information, An anonymous reader writes with some bits gleaned from the recently published study (PDF): "Seoul is the most criminal city on the Internet, followed by Taipei and Beijing. When the population of the top 20 cities is taking into account, Chelyabinsk , in Russia, tops the list, followed by Buenos Aires and Kuala Lampur. These results were found by researchers from the from the University of Twente and Quarantainenet, a security company from the Netherlands. The researchers also found that analyzing attacks' origin at the city level [Original, in Dutch] instead of country level reveals interesting findings. For example, the U.S. ranked #3 in the list of the most criminal countries for the reporting period, while no major U.S. city was found among the most evil ones, while only one European city was listed among the top 20 cities, but 8 EU countries were among the most criminal. It was also observed that the list of criminal cities remains stable over a period time and that when the attack type is taken into account, 50% of the most evil cities remains the same." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

dkd903 writes "The CentOS team just announced the availability of CentOS Linux version 6.0 for both i386 and x86_64 architectures. CentOS 6.0 is based on the upstream release of RHEL 6.0 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and includes packages from all variants." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Technology wired the human body in incredible new ways this week as Inhabitat reported that a paralyzed Japanese man embarked upon an adventure through France with the aid of a robotic exoskeleton. We also watched NASA launch a pee recycling bag that turns urine into a sports drink, and we spotted a pair of bionic eyeglasses that could help the blind see. On the other hand, robots are getting more and more creative - check out these psychedelic LED light paintings made by Roomba vacuums. We also saw a new study show that kids are predicting the future of technology, and Toysmith gave ordinary cardboard packaging a fun robot reboot.Futuristic aviation made major headwinds this week as the European Union invested $6.2 million dollars to develop a new breed of "myCopter" flying cars. We also watched as the eGenius airplane shattered a world speed record and Thomson Airways launched the UK's first airline powered by cooking oil. Green machines hit the streets as well as BMW unveiled its blazing Motorrad E-Bike and Pope Benedict XVI scored an M-Class Mercedes hybrid Popemobile.In other news, alternative energy gained major ground as a report revealed that America now receives more power from renewable sources than from nuclear plants. Meanwhile, we set sail for the world's first renewable energy island, and we dug up a deserted tin mine that has been transformed into a 1.4 MW solar plant. We also explored the greener side of technology in our Ask a Tech Geek series as gadget[..]